SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

vincentlynch-moonoi That is the unanswered question here. Why? Why exactly was Gertrude Bell so fascinated with the desert states she explored. She rode camels a lot. She walked a lot. She appeared to be tall. All superficial things about this character. But we all that camel riding and walking got boring after a while...and not a very long while at that. Clearly there must have been a fascinating woman there...but you'd never know it by this film. 128 minutes is not too long for most films...but it was too long here.That's not to say the film has no redeeming qualities. Oddly enough, I can't stand James Franco. But here I found his performance very engaging...although it took me a while to realize who he was. Of course, as one of the good things about the movie, we only see him in the early scenes of the movie.Nicole Kidman did a fine job as Gertrude Bell. That wasn't the problem with the movie. The problem was the script and the directing. The most interesting casting may have been that as Robert Pattinson as "Lawrence of Arabia"; quite interesting...but he's no Peter O'Toole. And I found it interesting to see Jenny Agutter, who I lost track of since 1976 in "Logan's Run" (I know I just dated myself).The film wasn't bad enough to turn off, but it did take me several sittings to wade through the plodding plot. It's a shame...I have a feeling there was a fascinating story here.

ramihaxhi The critics who fall all over each other for crap like Marvel comic book movies, Transformers and the like, panned this movie. Well, they blew it. This movie has the typical Herzog exceptional cinematography set to absolutely beautiful music. Very few directors in the history of cinema have Herzog's ear for just the right music. We're not talking about putting the records you collected as a teenager in your movies like so many other directors do who cater to imbeciles. This story is intelligent, feels like a documentary. It's beautiful. Of course, Herzog also touches on his man vs nature favorite theme. If you're a fan of Herzog, ignore the critics (they've become useless) and see this film. Trust Herzog, don't trust the critics ever again. It's like listening to a poem.

cinemajesty Film Review: "Queen of the Desert" (2015)Working with major Hollywood stars on a frequent basis since 2005 with directing Christian Bale through "Rescue Dawn" (2006), confronting Nicolas Cage with inner demons in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" (2009) and given the antagonist "The Zec" for Tom Cruise's interpreted character of "Jack Reacher" (2012), Director Werner Herzog collaborates with actress Nicole Kidman to make her a living goddess by using the chronicles of real-life character Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) to find poetic beginnings and a roundup ending for a passionate picture of a woman connecting to her inner state within nature. The director loses all the ongoing hooks and suspense twists in between, especially due to a miscast actor James Franco as Gertrude Bell's love-interest Henry Cadogan, leaving Nicole Kidman struggling through an early 2014 shooting period, which she, due to her professionalism and decades of filmmaking experience, resolved for herself by wrap time, leaving the much-more documentary solid director Werner Herzog with another unbalanced motion picture narration of missed opportunities.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

phd_travel I can see why this movie wasn't a box office smash - it's not an adventure tale with battles and lots of excitement. This is a biopic of a brave British woman who explored the desert areas of what is now Syria Iraq Jordan etc in the early 1900s and got to know the tribes and later help draw up boundaries of the newly formed countries after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Her ill fated romances punctuate the story.Nicole Kidman convincingly plays a range of ages from 20s to I guess 40s. Robert Pattinson looks a bit goofy and out of place as TE Lawrence. But even more strangely cast is James Franco as an English civil servant. He whispers his dialog so his accent isn't terribly disastrous.The photography in the desert is quite stunning.Interesting.